Pain management

grandadpaul

I have only been a member for a short while.
I have not posted this to upset anyone, but to get only your thoughts.
This might get interesting..
I have suffered from Arthritis for years and years and have taken most if not all the pain killers out there.
The best one i have found is...
Cannabis
The doctors know i take it, so do the consultants and no one has tried to say it will not work or is no good for you.
On the other had, i have been told to cut down on cocodimol and now tramadol now i am on this, because of side affects.
Years ago i had an early appointment with a consultant after working nights.
He caught me of guard and i was tired when he asked me what pain control i was taking.
So i told him the truth..all he said was that will do the trick! and no mention of side effects.
Ever since then i have been more open and no one seems bothered.
But they do when they find out about how many tramadol etc i take.
I believe they give this out for MS ( i might be wrong)
I also read last week they are looking into Cannabis for arthritis.
Before any one states that it leads to harder/stronger drugs.....so we are not all getting stronger drugs when all ours wear of after a few years are we!
In short Cannabis is the best pain management drug out there and they know it thats why they are now looking into this.
I am not a young hippie (Though i would like to be) i am just a normal bloke who like to sit and watch midsummer murders, but i belive that it bis the best pain management drug out there by a country mile.
You thoughts please...
And sorry again if anyone is offended.
Paul

salamander

Hi Paul, I think it is well documented that it works for pain and I believe you are right that it can be prescribed for MS sufferers, though I think it is a pill which has the bit that gets you high taken out. It would be good if it were licensed for arthritis sufferers.

crabby85

i know someone who smoked it for cancer pain (they were terminal) and said it helped x

do you think it will ever be made legal for pain relief?

dreamdaisy

I'm not offended but have not (and will not) try it as a method of controlling the uncontrollable. Pain is a fact of my life, I can't get rid of it no matter what I do so why bother? Anything I try to ease matters is temporary because pain is the Japanese Knotweed of my life. There are some benefits in being female and a greater tolerance of pain is one of them (given what we are 'built' to achieve it's no wonder). You do what you need to and if it helps then that is a good thing. DD

PS You have been told to reduce the legal things despite your docs apparently being aware you have the option of the other. If that is so effective then why are you bothering with the licensed stuff? Everything is harmful, for me that has included breathing.

Boomer13

I've been tempted many times to try it when my pain has reached a volume that I can't manage. I'm struggling along with my current regime and may try it at some future time.

A friend used the medicinal version for herniated disc pain. It unfortunately made her feel pretty ill, so I'm glad to hear it's worked well for you. Like every drug, it probably has more or less side-effects/effectiveness depending on the individual.

Anna

grandadpaul

dreamdaisy wrote:

I'm not offended but have not (and will not) try it as a method of controlling the uncontrollable. Pain is a fact of my life, I can't get rid of it no matter what I do so why bother? Anything I try to ease matters is temporary because pain is the Japanese Knotweed of my life. There are some benefits in being female and a greater tolerance of pain is one of them (given what we are 'built' to achieve it's no wonder). You do what you need to and if it helps then that is a good thing. DD

PS You have been told to reduce the legal things despite your docs apparently being aware you have the option of the other. If that is so effective then why are you bothering with the licensed stuff? Everything is harmful, for me that has included breathing.

Can i just answer the last part.
I continue with the legal stuff because i still work.
Hence Tramadol in the week
Cannabis weekends and holidays
I know what works best and so i think do they.
I have not come across any consultant for my arthritis has has warned me against it.
But i have Tramadol Diflofenic etc as still continue to.

Thank you all for your posts on this matter>
Drugs always cause offence, but lets face it we are all on them.

Paul

jillyb1

As I've said before on this subject : been there , done that ; grew up .
Jillyb

barbara12

I am not offended one bit, and have read many article on cannabis and pain, it does seem to do the trick,why on earth they can prescribed tramadol and cocodamols but yet stay clear of cannabis is beyond me.
I do wish you well with it and hope it brings great relief..and I love the hippy quote...
Hopefully it will be cleared for arthritis pain..

grandadpaul

jillyb1 wrote:

As I've said before on this subject : been there , done that ; grew up .
Jillyb

Oh right.
All i wanted when i started this post is for opinions on the subject.
Like we were all sitting around the table chatting.
I thought this post would get pulled and a thank you to the Mods for letting me express a view.
One one hand my pain control has increased in strength and now find myself taking others things for the side effects.
On the other hand the treatment has remained constant and still effective.

The medical people write every thing we do down. No doubt from how much we eat and drink to what medication we are on.
All my point was that on one side of my treatment, no one seems alarmed, but on the other side they are very!
I believe its out there for MS..why not us.

Sorry if anyone thought me childish.
Paul

dreamdaisy

Childish? No way mate, if it helps you then that is a good thing (but I smile at jillyB1's comment). I started my own business but then, two years later, this malarkey arrived (deepest thanks to my parents not ) resulting in my spending a further fifteen years adjusting and then forcing myself to get on with work and domestic life until daylight dawned. Woman's work is never done (trite and true) but the professional stuff could be stopped so I did because I have to look after him, the bacon-bringer. Whatever steps we take the outcome is the same: the pain returns.

Everyone's circumstances are different which is why we should be allowed to express our opinions, yes? I am surprised that your thread is still here but I am pleased it is. DD

marrianne

I reached a point just after christmas when I was needing more and more no more stopped stopped .. gabapentine codiene /phosphate ..and others just to go back to sleep at 3/30 am the amytripiline just made me groggy all the time with an embarrasing dry mouth ..finnaly and with some reluctance my GP prescribed tramadol ........it didnt make a s c r a p of difference ...and the trade was he had taken me of the naproxen ... I looked awful had repeated in fections.. tired yet still in agony big flare ups high blood pressure .. oh my disease modifyer was leflunamide .. ..................10 days I thought thats it enough is enough stopped the lot I felt my body was totally toxic my bloods were high inflammation markers ...the nurse rang me at home to find out if I could explain anything that might be causeing it besides the R/A NOW I FEEL TIRED I am in moderate pain still not sleeping all that well but the sleep is natural .. I am trying not to eat to much rubbish no alcohol . apart from a bit of irritable bowel I think I am not doing to bad and not ready to throw in the towel I would consider cannibis s/p ... but not in smokeing form

edited by Mod YEH - the word s c r a p is messing with our filter - check out the last 4 letters.

marrianne

just posted on Pauls thread but its being looked at by the mods ,I should have added due to start my first ant tnf ..on 22nd Jan

bubbadog

Ok here's where I make a confession! An old friend of mine was smoking Cannabis as a recreational thing and I had no problem with it and at the time I was suffering terribly with pain as I wasn't on the meds I am now and she said to me it's suppose to be good for chronic pain why don't you try some? Well I thought about it for a good few days as I don't smoke and was worried about the effects so read up on the them but at the time any help with pain relief was worth trying so I plucked up the courage and asked my friend to roll me a 'Joint'! She made sure their was not too much in it for me. After having it which was hard for me being a non-smoker! I can say all I remember was having the giggles and I mean I couldn't stop giggling for a couple of hours! Yes it did help with the pain and I was mellowed out for a couple of hours. But I don't think I could spoke a joint every couple of hours!! Maybe bake some cookies? If they did decide to make it legal for medical use I would be interested how they would dispense it.

cherrybim

Hello Paul,

I was a 'flower child' of the 60s but never experienced the effect of cannabis.

I have, however seen the effects that prescribed drugs can produce.

One of my sons had a serious road accident when he was 25, not his fault but that's neither here nor there. He broke his back and the seatbelt ruptured his appendix which wasn't immediately apparent until peritonitis set in whereupon his schoolmate's Dad, a surgeon operated on him at 1.am.

After surgery he was put on a self administered drip of morphine which sent him completely off the wall and he had to be sectioned. This for a young chap with an IQ of 145, it was all beyond belief.

My point is that ALL drugs are deleterious. Another of my boys who lives in America is keeping a cave on the development of cannabis for the pain of arthritis. He is most aggrieved that; ' you're chucking all kinds of **** into your body mother'

My salient point is:- Choose your own destiny, if it works for you and doesn't harm others then go for it.

Cherry x

stickywicket

I agree with cherrybim. All drugs have side-effects, it's just a matter of balancing good v bad. I won't do cannabis because I don't do any pain meds that I don't have to do. Plus cannabis is unregulated so there is no way of knowing dosage. You might get a hefty whack on one occasion and very little on another. I understand modern cannabis is much stronger than the 'flower power' version so more likely to create problems. Schitzophrenia is a known one which I'd prefer to avoid.

It is, I believe sometimes prescribed, as a spray, for the spasticity effects of MS, not for pain.

Interestingly, when we are on Venice Beach boardwalk (We have a son in L.A.) with my husband pushing me in the wheelchair, the young girls in bikinis, trying to attract punters into the 'Medicinal marijuana' booths, totally ignore me (The obvious candidate, I'd have thought) and try to get my husband to try it :?

grandadpaul

Thanks for all the comments.
As for tramadol i agree with a post above.
I kept hearing about this drug and was told it was always a option in the future for pain.
When i started taking it i did not notice any improvement.
Yes all drugs are bad and have side effects..we cannot get sway from that.
But the thing that still puzzles me is why my consultants etc have not tried to warn me against taking what i do.

And good luck on the 22nd marrianne

Paul

dreamdaisy

The Holy Grail of pain relief does not exist. I reckon all we can do is get on with living with the pain, pacing ourselves and using it as feedback: when things start hurting more then it's time for a break. Pain is a fact of our lives, we can't change that. I prefer to be in pain and reasonably alert rather than slobbing through life as a pain-reduced zombie. I have trammies for the really tough times (and they do help because they make me drowsy) but for every-day? Nuh-uh, not for me. DD

marrianne

Thanks Paul ,I have tried hard to go cold turkey ,but the pain is wearing me down ..3 days to go then fingers crossed antitnf ... decided to try for a minimum period expecting great things :P OR ELSE will beg for a steroid jab and try another way homeopathy .....DD the thing is the pain I have at the moment is sapping my energy and I feel spaced out to ,I truely believed if I gave my body a chance it would start to behave but maybe I should give it longer but I am not that brave just dont ever want to go down the route of multiple meds anymore alreadyhave a total dresser drawer for the damned things hugs to all(((((())))))Marrianne

grandadpaul

Thats the thing you see..i have also tried most if not all other pain killers.
Hence me using what i do.
Well it works, why not!

I was on Infliximab anti tnf for 5 years..if thats what your going on it worked fantastic.


On the subject of alcohol.(as mentioned in this thread) i have noticed when i have a bottle of beer etc..my arthritis seems worse.
Paul

dreamdaisy

Don't get your hopes up too high about the anti TNF, Marianne. Mine is controlling the PsA but does nowt for the OA (which is the main source of my pain) or the fibro. I have learned over the years to keep my expectations of meds very low because that way I might be pleasantly surprised. :roll: In the early days I placed all my hopes on infliximab (came off that after the third infusion) and then slightly raised them for Enbrel (which went wrong). They all had one thing in common though - they didn't relieve the pain (and this was in my pre-OA days).

grandadpaul? Alcohol is acidic but I count my white wine as one of my five a day. DD

salamander

Paul, There is an article on the home page of Arthritis Research about research for use of drugs similar to cannabis for control of pain of OA. You might find it interesting. I would post a link but not sure the mods would allow it.

grandadpaul

salamander wrote:

Paul, There is an article on the home page of Arthritis Research about research for use of drugs similar to cannabis for control of pain of OA. You might find it interesting. I would post a link but not sure the mods would allow it.

Just read it.
Thank you.

Paul

salamander

dreamdaisy wrote:

Don't get your hopes up too high about the anti TNF, Marianne. Mine is controlling the PsA but does nowt for the OA (which is the main source of my pain) or the fibro. I have learned over the years to keep my expectations of meds very low because that way I might be pleasantly surprised. :roll: In the early days I placed all my hopes on infliximab (came off that after the third infusion) and then slightly raised them for Enbrel (which went wrong). They all had one thing in common though - they didn't relieve the pain (and this was in my pre-OA days).

grandadpaul? Alcohol is acidic but I count my white wine as one of my five a day. DD

Lots of people do really well on the anti tnfs, DD. Don't take away Marianne's hopes. Hope is how I carry on.

marrianne

Hi everyone ,Going to read Salamanders link today ,Paul my anti tnf is the cinzia one s/p ... dont have my leaflet to hand ..well aparently its slightly cheaper than some of the older ones ,DD I think its the R/A pain it might be better with and maybe pain patches could work re the osteo .. Alcohol .................miss it miss it miss it :roll: ((((()))) hugs to all Marrianne

ichabod6

There are lots of alternative ways of managing YOUR pain other than
a reliance on drugs. Going on an Arthritis Care Challenging Pain course
could be a starter.

Boomer13

When the pain is making you more spaced out and depressed than the drugs do, you need to act. Depression from loss of one's life activity due to pain requires medication. I have done pain management courses and support groups. Not from lack of trying, they just didn't work with an extremely high level of daily pain. You try different things and find what works for you, and, don't feel bad about it.

Taking an effective drug daily for pain does not make someone a weak person. You can only take so much pain before exhaustion and despair settle in. Being completely non-functional due to pain needs treatment medicinally, if necessary. You need to be able to be as active as possible. I know I'm not taking these things daily for the fun of it, because I'm not tough enough, or for some kind of crutch. They are medically necessary for some of us to function IMO. Yes, there can be that much pain.

I don't mean to come across as defensive but it's something I feel strongly about having tried the various no meds, exercise, etc, route(s); they work to some extent. I take people's negative assessments of me all the time. It's water off a duck's back for me now....I will do what I need to.

Best wishes.